[PS: Brain storage here. Parallel world, simple wish-fulfillment fiction. Leave your brain here for the best reading experience.]
A parallel world, Xiangnan Province, Star City.
Inside a rented room of roughly thirty square meters, Li Rui lay sprawled on the bed.
Li Rui was twenty-five and had graduated from university three years ago. Since graduating, he had found several jobs, almost all in sales. Because he did not know how to boast and deceive people, he earned only a base salary of one or two thousand a month, with no hope in sight.
Just a month ago, his boss had given him a scolding. Li Rui had lost control for a moment and beaten his boss up, and so he had gloriously joined the ranks of the unemployed.
Looking at the balance of a little over a hundred yuan in his bank account, Li Rui wanted to cry but had no tears. Three years after graduating, he had accomplished nothing. However poorly his old classmates were doing, surely none of them had ended up like him.
He had never imagined he would sink this low one day. He was one of the few university students from his village. When he had gotten into university, his parents could not afford the tuition; even his tuition fees had been scraped together by his uncles.
The family elders had placed great hopes in him. They had never imagined that three years after graduation, he would end up unable even to afford food.
He had not been home in three years. Whenever his parents called at the end of the year to ask whether he would come home for New Year, he always said he was busy. The truth was that he had no money. He was too ashamed to return and felt he had let down his parents and his uncles.
No, I can't keep wallowing like this. I can't disgrace my parents. I have to make something of myself.
Remembering how he had once boasted that he would revive the family once he had completed his studies and made something of himself, Li Rui rolled over and sat up. Clenching his fist, he solemnly vowed to himself, "I can't keep wallowing like this.
"I have to pull myself together. I have to revive the family. I can't disgrace my parents. I can't disappoint my uncles."
Just as Li Rui finished shouting his daily slogan and was about to go back to lying flat-
"Ding-dong! The host has been detected to possess a strong desire to revive his family. The Family Revival System has been bound," a voice rang out in his mind.
"What? This is just my usual three-minute wake-up call. Why am I hearing things this time?"
"Ding! The beginner gift pack has been issued. Host, please claim it."
Hearing the voices ringing out one after another in his mind, Li Rui was dumbfounded. What the hell? A system? The kind of system written about in the countless novels I've read?
How could a system appear in the real world? Am I dreaming?
Slap! "Hiss... That really hurt. I'm not dreaming?"
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, then rose higher and higher, before he burst into wild laughter.
After laughing wildly for a full three minutes, Li Rui confirmed again and again that the system really existed. With a system, wouldn't reaching the peak of life and marrying a fair-skinned, rich beauty be a matter of minutes?
"System, what functions do you have?" Li Rui asked the system cautiously in his mind, as though speaking a little louder might scare it away.
"Host, this system is the Family Revival System. By developing your family and increasing its unity, prestige, and honor, you may receive rewards for anything that can revive the family."
"System rewards include technology, skills, money, and much more."
"To better serve the host and better revive the family, the system has prepared biohumans from every profession for the host. The host may purchase them with money. Biohumans are one hundred percent loyal to the host."
"System, I can't even scrape together two hundred yuan in my bank account, and you want me to revive my family? Aren't you thinking far too highly of me?" Li Rui said self-mockingly after listening to the system's introduction.
Although families were still spoken of nowadays, they were nothing but a heap of loose sand, with no unity whatsoever. Having a poor loser in his twenties like him revive his family? It was nothing but a fool's dream.
"Host, the system possesses a vast amount of advanced technology. As long as you revive the family, you may obtain all kinds of advanced technology."
"This includes photolithography machines, aircraft engines, and a whole range of other cutting-edge technologies. With the system, you are destined to become a man at the top of the pyramid. Host, please do not belittle yourself."
Hearing the system's answer, Li Rui asked in shock, "The system can even reward top-tier technology like photolithography machines?"
Photolithography machines were hailed as the jewels of industry, works that brought together the pinnacle of industrial achievement. The most advanced photolithography machines on Blue Star were manufactured using technology jointly supplied by thousands of companies across dozens of developed countries, involving countless cutting-edge technologies.
"Yes, host. As long as the host revives the family, any technology may be obtained, including Big Goose's White Swan and Eagle Sauce's B-2 Stealth Bomber. You may also obtain technology even more powerful than these. Anything is possible. Keep it up, host."
Receiving the system's confirmation, Li Rui was ecstatic. Dragon Country imported over four hundred billion US dollars' worth of high-end chips every year, equivalent to nearly three trillion Dragon Country Currency. Countries led by Eagle Sauce Country even used high-end chips to curb Dragon Country's rise.
As long as I can obtain the complete technology for photolithography machines, I'll absolutely become rich enough to rival a nation. I'll also be able to help the country reach the summit, so Eagle Sauce Country will never again have it by the throat.
Not to mention the White Swan and Eagle Sauce's B-2, which had the people of Dragon Country drooling three feet long. With him here, and with the system here, the day Dragon Country stood at the summit of the world was within reach.
After his joy subsided, Li Rui thought of another problem and asked the system, "System, even if I obtain these advanced technologies, how am I supposed to explain them? Once I get too many, there'll be no way to explain them at all. Won't I get arrested and sliced up for research?"
"Host, the system has already resolved this problem for you. All rewarded technologies will be delivered in the form of biohumans."
"The biohumans delivered will possess complete knowledge of the technology rewarded by the system, and the system will arrange legitimate backgrounds for them. Biohumans are one hundred percent loyal to the host. Please rest assured."
Biohumans? I almost forgot about those. "System, does that mean I can buy special forces biohumans or business elite biohumans?" Li Rui asked expectantly.
If he could buy utterly loyal special forces biohumans, his safety would be assured. If he could buy business elites, business matters would involve much less trouble.
After all, Li Rui had seen plenty of subordinates betraying their superiors in TV dramas. With biohumans who were one hundred percent loyal to him, he would not have to fear betrayal.
"Yes, host. The system has biohumans from every profession, at varying prices. Please check the specifics yourself."
As soon as the system finished speaking, a system panel appeared in Li Rui's mind, filled with a dazzling array of character icons from every profession.
Among them were the special forces biohumans and business elite biohumans Li Rui had been longing for, but the prices listed made his pupils contract.
Every type of biohuman was divided into three tiers: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Even a basic special forces biohuman cost two million Dragon Country Currency. An intermediate one cost five million, and an advanced one ten million.
The business elite biohumans were even more outrageously expensive: ten million for basic, twenty million for intermediate, and thirty million for advanced.
"System, are you messing with me? They're so expensive. What am I supposed to buy them with?" Even a biohuman with farming skills on the system panel cost five hundred thousand. He did not even have two hundred yuan in his bank account. What could he buy them with?
"Host, you still have an unclaimed beginner gift pack. Please claim your beginner gift pack." If the system had eyes, it would have rolled them. How could a system as intelligent as itself possibly have failed to consider that the host was a broke bastard?
Only after the system's reminder did Li Rui remember the earlier notification about a beginner gift pack. He had been so excited that he had nearly forgotten all about it.
"Claim the beginner gift pack," Li Rui silently told the system in his mind.